Is Alien Intrigue Really a Soviet-Era Psyop?

Former Los Angeles Times Magazine reporter Annie Jacobsen argues in a new book that Nazi Josef Mengele went to Russia after World War II and, under Stalin’s direction, surgically deformed children so they’d look like aliens.

The book tells a gripping story about the possible roots of alien intrigue, but ABC’s Bill Weir didn’t buy it during Thursday’s Nightline broadcast. In the clip embedded above, Weir blasts Jacobsen for relying on an octogenarian as a primary source for the weird story.

Watch the clip, then weigh in: Does Jacobsen’s Area 51 theory contain grains of truth or is it rooted in false memory syndrome, as Weir posits in the confrontational interview?